Sunday, November 15, 2015

A proposed Russian submarine launched doomsday weapon — the existence of which was almost certainly leaked by the Kremlin — gives clues to the Russian mindset for the development of new strategic weapons in the face of the West’s increasing ballistic missile defense capability and Russia’s shrinking national assets, a naval analyst told USNI News on Thursday.

The Status-6 weapon was revealed on Wednesday during a Russian broadcast of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and military leaders in Sochi and a screengrab of the weapon was widely circulated following the broadcast.

The weapon is allegedly a robotic mini-submarine” capable of speeds 100 knots with a range of 6,200 miles, according to state controlled press and designed to “destroy important economic installations of the enemy in coastal areas and cause guaranteed devastating damage to the country’s territory by creating wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time,” according to a translation of the document by the BBC.